I live a block from the river. On a walk a couple of weeks ago, my daughter and I found two young ducklings nestled in the grass, no parent ducks anywhere. For that matter, we hadn't seen any nesting pairs yet and these guys were good sized, but no adult feathers yet.

We finally decided to take them home and they've been living in my entryway in a dry plastic wading pool. Boy are they smelly! Moving to a pen in the backyard tomorrow.

Anyway, in reading on the web, I've determined one is a Khaki Campbell, likely a female as her adult feathers are coming in brown on her head.

The other, though, is black but with tan/yellow markings on either side of the head like little wild ducks I've seen. I know it's a domestic, but the only black ducks I've read about are Cayuga and there are never any comments on the tan markings on the young. Anyone have any knowledge on black duck breeds as babies?

I'm sure someone bought and then later just dumped these little darlings by the river thinking wild ducks would adopt them or instincts would see them through. In a way they did - they came right up to us and let us take them home!

Thanks, Nancy

-- nancy morrison (artdreams1@home.com), April 19, 2001

Answers

Do any of your ducks look like these?....From top to bottom, yellow ones White Pekin, Blue Swedish, Black Cuyuga, little ones are Rouens, and the brown ones are Khaki Campbells. 2 geese are Africans. Not a very good picture, but hope that helps you figure out what you have. They range in age from 4 day Rouen to 2 weeks.


-- Kent in WA (kent@premier1.net), April 19, 2001.

What a wonderful, helpful pic! I definitely have a Khaki, and the other looks like the little dark ones with the tan toward the middle of the photo. Rouens? Cool! I'll go look them up.

He must be over a month old. His adult feathers are coming in black with a tracing of brown around each one - very lovely critter.

Thanks you ever so much

Nancy

-- nancy morrison (artdreams1@home.com), April 19, 2001.